Following the progress of the Magnitsky sanctions legislation in the US and other countries, the Russian government has taken the unprecedented step of making secret the names of all 12 officials from the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office involved in prosecuting Sergei Magnitsky posthumously.
The group of 12 prosecutors was created on 1 June 2011 by decision of Russia’s General Prosecutor Yury Chaika, following his meeting with then President Dmitry Medvedev, to “strengthen oversight” over investigations in the Magnitsky case. Yuri Chaika announced that the group comprised “creme de la creme” of the Prosecutor’s Office. However, when the lawyer for Ms Magnitskaya requested access to information about the group and its actions, he was stonewalled. All his petitions were rejected on unreasoned ground. Read more

As the Magnitsky bill moves forward in the US Congress, the UK Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission has urged the UK Foreign Secretary to take urgent steps to implement similar visa bans and asset freezes on corrupt Russian officials involved in the torture and death of 37-year whistle-blowing lawyer and in other gross human rights abuses, and to make public the names of blacklisted officials.

“In recognition of the unique position of London as a destination of choice for many senior Russian officials, the government should take action to introduce measures to publicly restrict visas and to freeze the assets of Russian officials involved in serious corruption and human rights abuses as soon as possible,” said the UK Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission in its July 2012 Report (http://www.conservativehumanrights.com/pdf/CHRC_Violations_against_Professionals.pdf). Read more

Today, Natalia Magnitskaya, mother of the late Sergei Magnitsky, wrote an open letter to Valentina Matvienko, head of the Russian Federation Council (the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament), demanding answers over the defamatory remarks made posthumously against her dead son in Washington DC last week by Russian multi-millionnaire senator Vitaly Malkin, who was previously named as “a member of a group engaging in organized or transnational crime” by the Canadian government in court proceedings.

“I believe that an attempt to slander the good name of my son posthumously looks shameful and not deserving of the honorable title of people’s representative,” said Natalia Magnitskaya in her open letter to the leader of the Russia’s Federation Council (http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/D524.pdf). Read more